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Topic: Forrest Fang news (Read 6770 times)

Thanks, Richard. I've been thinking about reissuing this one for a while and am glad it's now coming together. I'll have probably have an unreleased track or two originally recorded for the project on the CD as well. Funny thing, when I originally released this, I was thinking of only releasing it only on vinyl in a limited edition of 100.

It's been a while in coming, but Projekt's reissue of my third and fourth albums, "The Wolf At The Ruins/Migration" is now available for pre-order as a two-fer. (The formal release date is August 13.) "Wolf" has been out of print since the mid-90s and "Migration" was only previously available on LP, so I'm happy that these are available again in (hopefully) a more friendly format (CD and digital). Robert Rich did an especially nice job cleaning up the sonics on these albums through remastering. The sound is a lot more transparent now. I've included 4 previously unreleased bonus tracks that add 20 minutes to the CDs. Sam has added a nice promotion: the first 100 copies of Wolf sold through Projekt will include a free copy of my 2011 "Unbound" release under the Sans Serif name.

There will be only 300 copies of the CDs made, though the digital release will not limited.

Thanks, guys. Almost forgot to mention that my second album, "Some Brighter Stars," will be also available digitally for the first time in mid-August via Projekt (probably through Bandcamp). Robert Rich remastered this one as well. I released this in the early 80s (scary to think how long ago that was), and used tape delay ("Frippertronics") on it extensively, but with synths and acoustic instruments instead of guitars. (The original vinyl is going for a ridiculous price on Amazon (almost 200 bucks)--makes me wish I had made more of them.)

The package from Projekt arrived well over a week ago and I've given everything a few listens now. My first introduction to Forrest Fang was Gongland. That album always struck me as containing a creative mixture of various eastern instrumentation and styles and em-based ambient. It is really unique album and one that has remained in rotation around my house despite its age. With that as context, it is really fascinating to hear releases prior to Gongland that seem more firmly rooted on one side of that coin vs. the other. I'm really enjoying Wolf/Migration, but I, must confess, I also feel a bit like an archeologist who is uncovering the origins of the modern Forest Fang sound; it is hard for me to appreciate the albums on their own terms. Some of the tracks really stand out as brilliant. I'm particularly fond of The Luminous Crowd, A Quiet Place, Silent Fields, and Karina. I also prefer Wolf over Migration. Many of the songs on Migration have a one-track quality and don't have the richness of the multi-instrumentation contained in Wolf.

I'm somewhat reluctant to note, given the fact that this is a re-release celebration, that what I really enjoyed from this package was the "free with your order" copy of Unbound. That is some of the best drone work I've listened to lately. It is just as good with head phones and deep listening as it is as background ambiance. A true gem.

Thanks for your feedback. No need for you to feel any reluctance in your comments. You're right, Migration is more spartan than Wolf. My sound on Migration was dominated by a minimalist approach not only in structure but in instrumentation. I also made a conscious effort to (mostly) avoid violin on that release, though it's my main instrument. The sound on Wolf is much fuller because I had better equipment and more channels to work with, I had started acquiring more instruments, and I had just added my first two real electronic polyphonic keyboards to my sound--a Korg DSS-1 sampler and a cheap Casio digital synth (the CZ-101). I think of Wolf as a transition album--some elements of space music, some of a world progressive sound, but I was still working it out. If Wolf was the egg, then Migration was the embryo. Years ago I had been planning to reissue Wolf because I would periodically get requests for it but never seemed to get around to it. When it finally happened, I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to add in Migration, since that was a vinyl only release. Since the music is over 20 years old, I'm not surprised that some of it has aged better (or worse) than other parts, but hopefully, you found enough in it to find it worth the trouble.

I'm especially pleased that you enjoyed Unbound. That release is a bit of a departure from my other releases on Projekt, in that is more hardcore ambient soundscape. I know it may not be as appealing to those who prefer my world progressive style, but it's something I wanted to do.

Sorry to make this a last minute thing, but Archie Patterson of Eurock fame is now running a show on KUSF in Exile from 10 pm to 11 pm tonight that features music from me, Robert Rich, Tim Story and Blue Tofu.

Just wanted to let folks know that I've added a few stray tracks to a new Soundcloud page I just created. What prompted me to do this was a new one-off track I created yesterday for fun ("Bothered") that was inspired by Tim Story's recent collaborations with members of the German electronic band Cluster. I've also posted a track from 2009 ("Cicidas") that I originally posted to last.fm, a track from 2001 ("Silent Blue") that didn't make it onto Phantoms, and an ambient track I did back in 1999 ("Crickets With Gongs") as Spirit Oscillator for a beat-oriented EP.

My latest album, Letters To The Farthest Star, is now available in physical and CD form directly from Projekt: http://www.projekt.com/store/product/pro00312/It is a fairly ambitious and personal project that I hope resonates with you. The album will be released elsewhere will be March 3. If you order directly from Projekt, you will also receive in digital form 3 ambient remixes/deconstructions I completed this past month of pieces from the album. The beautiful cover image for the album was provided by photographer Maciej Koniuszy.